


no better love

by zenins



Category: Gintama
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Attempt at Humor, Domestic Fluff, Happy Ending, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Post-Canon, mentions of the manga ending, old married couple things, there are other characters mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-22
Updated: 2020-09-22
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:06:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26600350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zenins/pseuds/zenins
Summary: Takasugi and Gintoki play shogi on a quiet and rainy evening, and Gintoki makes a little unexpected proposal.
Relationships: Sakata Gintoki/Takasugi Shinsuke
Comments: 9
Kudos: 45





	no better love

Gintoki was cheating. _Again_. Nothing new, really. Gintoki and him had slowly picked up the routine of playing shogi every day, sitting in the engawa by their little garden. It had started as a silly suggestion of Takasugi, wanting to play after years not not doing so, and Gintoki had accepted it only because he had been bored because of the rain that day. So since the rainy season had started, they’d sit down with a shogi table between each other and pass the hours playing as they listened to the rain fall outside.

At first it reminded Takasugi of when they were children and Zura would get them to play games none of them had tried before because of their different childhoods, but now it had turned into something more like a habit.

Gintoki was so prone to cheat and try every single noticeable trick that Takasugi had stopped scolding him for it, so he decided to let this one slip, only because he was already winning. 

While he was thinking his next move, Gintoki spoke up and distracted him from his thoughts 

“Hey, let’s get married” He says with the most even and flat voice possible. For a second Takasugi thinks he’s joking, since he has that deadpan face of him.

“I let you cheat without getting annoyed and you are suddenly asking for marriage?” Takasugi raises his eyebrows joking “Is the bar _that_ low?”

“Jerk. I mean it...Let’s get married” Gintoki repeats. So it’s not a joke after all. Takasugi can’t deny he’s surprised by the sudden proposal. It’s not like their friends and family, specially Kagura, have not referred to them as an _old married couple_ multiple times, but they had never really considered marriage. Takasugi had always thought Gintoki wasn’t the kind of person to like such a tradition, and he himself never cared about formalities, so they had never talked about it. Still, Takasugi decides it’s not so bad, he can let Gintoki have this if he really wants to do it. It's not like he plans to spend the rest of his days with someone else, either. 

“Okay” He says, and Gintoki’s face instantly lights up. Seeing his reaction, he decides this might be worth it. He looks down at the shogi table, feeling his ears slowly heating up. No matter how old they are, Takasugi still finds himself blushing as if they were teenagers again. 

“We could get matching rings and all of that, maybe yours can have a butterfly or anything like that...Or maybe a moon and sun...Or maybe we can get plain silver rings? Or…”

“With what money?” Takasugi interrupts him scoffing.

“Hey bastard, I work hard, you know?” Gintoki says as pissed as equally amused. “With the rainy season and all, people always start coming more to the Yorozuya, and if it’s not like I can’t give up my daily parfait sometimes. We’ll save money like that”

“You’d give up your stupidly diabetic food for this?” Takasugi asks chuckling

Gintoki blushes a bit and mutters something Takasugi can’t barely hear. When Takasugi asks him what he had said, Gintoki mutters something along the lines _quit acting surprised_ and Takasugi just smiles even more. 

Rings, he thinks, aren’t much different from Gintoki using Takasugi’s haoiri when he’s too lazy to go find his own, or how they both have matching scarfs during the winter, made by Kagura years ago. It’s the same as them walking together under a shared umbrella when it’s late during rainy nights and Gintoki can’t sleep. They aren’t any different, but having rings feels like a bigger thing, a reminder they can have each time they look at their hands. 

“If you want us to get rings, I don’t mind the type, anything is fine” He says, and Gintoki nods. After a little pause, he keeps going “But don’t tell Kagura yet, she might start crying because _her baby_ has grown _too_ fast” 

“She’ll be okay. In her last letter she called me senile. Senile,Shinsuke. I know you taught her that word. I can accept her calling us hags, but senile? She crossed the line, and it’s all your fault”

“Gintoki, we are pushing 40s”

“And? Gin-san is as fresh as ever. I’m sure there must be young ladies out there who still find me attractive. Like Zura with widows when we were younger” 

“Talking about Zura...we can’t tell him yet. He’ll tell Tatsuma, and then Tatsuma will tell everyone in the galaxy”

Gintoki chuckles “We can tell Mutsu and then she can threaten Tatsuma, he’ll listen to her” 

“Sarutobi will kill me if we tell her”

“Oh c’mon, she’s long ago accepted you in the family. Plus she’s doing well with Tsukuyo” Gintoki scoots a bit closer and elbows him “What are you? Ashamed of people knowing? Scared?” 

Gintoki says it in such a light tone, but Takasugi had enough of not being vocal about what he truly felt about the silver-haired man for decades, so he goes straight to the point like he has started doing during the past years. They lost many years during Takasugi’s past life,so he’ll gladly make the best out of this one.

“I’d never be ashamed of loving you” He says softly.

Gintoki stays quiet for a second and then starts to laugh again “Okay, okay...but if we tell someone first it can’t be Patsuan. He might have a heart attack”

“Don’t do him dirty like that, he deserves Heaven for dealing with you for so long”

“Ooooooooh and you know who will have to deal with me even more now?” Gintoki says the usual annoying and flirty voice he always used around him when they were younger

“Shut up, I agreed to marriage, don’t make it look like I just agreed to my execution” 

Gintoki begins to laugh louder than he’s laughed during the past days, and Takasugi finds a smile tugging his lips. _If I had known he’d get this happy for this, I’d have asked him earlier,_ Takasugi thinks. 

“Not gonna lie, I thought you’d be harder to convince with this..Sure thing you are a romantic and love poetry and music and all of that but..never thought you’d be the type of person to like.. _this_ , you know”

“Because I said marriage sucks when we were teenagers?” Takasugi mutters amused by Gintoki remembering that conversation out of every single one they had about relationships when they were kids.

“Well, yeah. And because of your parents too… ‘Read somewhere that your view on children and marriage are influenced by what you saw as a kid at home...And thought that you’d never want to be a father or marry anyone”

“I don’t think of my parents that much. Their marriage wasn’t that bad, I guess..Plus I’ve had enough of being a father with Kagura” 

“Never thought the brat would like you that much, if we are being honest. Then next thing I knew is that she was calling you her other _Earth Dad_ and _Sugi_ constantly”

“Will you ever leave _Sugi_ behind? I’m sure you loved that nickname even more than her” Takasugi is sure they’ll reach their 80s and Gintoki will still call him shortie or Hikusugi-kun like when they were young and stupid. He can still remember Gintoki falling to the floor laughing when the young girl had referred to him by Sugi for the first time, without noticing she was making fun of his height like Gintoki would do.

A silence settles between them, and after a bit Gintoki says smiling “We should resume the game. We have all day tomorrow to decide stuff, if you want to” 

And like that, they start to play again. Gintoki cheats a few more times, and Takasugi just smiles each time. 

After Takasugi does his next move, Gintoki comments “Hey, can I call this a win for me?”

“The game is still not over, dumbass. Plus I’m not letting you win”

“No, _dumbass._ I meant what we talked”

“Why would you call it a win? It has nothing to do with our competition, right?” Takasugi asks confused

“Why would I not do it? I’ve won and gotten back things in life I thought I’d never have again, and that includes you. And well, _us_ , or whatever we’ve been having for the past years. I should be allowed to call it a win” 

“Then make it a tie, we both deserve this one”

“755 and 755 it is,then” Gintoki says as he brings his hand to grab Takasugi’s from the shogi table to squeeze Takasugi’s fourth finger. They keep playing like that, with Takasugi’s left hand in Gintoki’s left hand, while they play with their right hand only. 

Eventually Gintoki wins, but only because Takasugi had let him win without the silver haired man noticing. He can accept this defeat if he keeps seeing Gintoki grinning like this for a bit longer.

**Author's Note:**

> struggled a lot with the tittle because the google doc was literally called "idea that when i was supposedly listening to the class", so that's why it might not fit the whole fic much. as soon as i got home i wrote this really quick listening to this feeling by alabama shakes and hozier, and here's the product. 
> 
> if it has any mistake, you can tell me.
> 
> as always, kudos and comments are appreciated. hope everyone's doing okay ! <3


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